bird banding Archives — BirdConservancy.org

Join us at this training to learn about our bird banding field trips, the curriculum, teaching strategies, and how to become a bird banding field trip program leader. Program leaders:

Lead groups of students or adults through structured bird banding focused field trips, including a bird walk, migration activity, and sharing information at the banding station

Work with different age groups, and be flexible in adapting your lessons to the appropriate grade level

Facilitate inquiry-based experiential learning

Embrace teachable moments

This training is for new volunteers, and is recommended as a refresher for returning volunteers.

If you’re interested, you are welcome to attend; no teaching experience is necessary, though experience with children is preferred. Applicants with a working knowledge of natural resources, natural history, ornithology, or who have the willingness to learn, are comfortable speaking in front of a group, and are reliable, adaptable, team players are encouraged to apply.

Programs vary in length, between 3 – 2 hours, dependent on program. Banding field trips occur late August – mid-October, Tuesday through Friday. Banding programs take place at the Barr Lake State Park Nature Center.

Barr Lake’s fall banding station had an incredible season with 1,902 individual birds caught last year—more than any year in over a decade! The station celebrates another chapter of educating visitors of all ages about the importance of birds in our lives, while also contributing to our understanding of bird distribution, population levels, and conservation needs at key migration stopover habitat.

Traditional and high-tech tools are revealing details about where Mountain Plovers spend time during migration and over winter—highlighting critical habitat locations and guiding much-needed conservation efforts.

After several weeks of intensive nest searching and observation, Bird Conservancy of the Rockies has confirmed that Baird’s Sparrows are actively breeding at Soapstone Prairie Natural Area—the first time the species has been documented reproducing in the State of Colorado. This remarkable discovery marks an exciting milestone in an already-eventful 2018 summer field season.

Colorado’s Chico Basin Ranch, southeast of Colorado Springs, CO, is well known as a home and haven for migratory and resident birds. 2018 marks Bird Conservancy’s 19th consecutive spring season of bird banding at ‘The Chico’ and this year did not disappoint with some exciting species observed.

Dana Ripper, Director of Missouri River Bird Observatory, shares how earlier career experiences at Bird Conservancy of the Rockies (then Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory) are helping foster and support bird conservation in the heart of the Midwest.

Mike Carter, founder and Executive Director of the Colorado Bird Observatory from 1988-2001, shares his memories about the creation of our organization and how events at the time came together to make it all happen.

2018 marks our 30th Anniversary, and we’re celebrating! In the coming months, we’ll reminisce about the migratory milestones and positive impacts that our organization has made through the years, as well as look to the future. We hope you enjoy this timeline featuring just a handful of the many accomplishments made possible by our supporters, partners, collaborators and staff.

Wildlife field work isn’t just for people and battery powered devices! Dogs are an effective and fulfilling tool in the conservation world. Meet Badger and Merlin, Bird Conservancy’s very own sparrow herding canines!

Brown-capped Rosy-Finches nest at higher elevations than any other bird species in the United States, and their breeding distribution is almost entirely limited to Colorado. Despite residing in an almost pristine environment for most of the year, they have declined by as much as 95% over the past 50 years and, unfortunately, we don’t know why. Read on to learn more about our efforts to solve this mystery.